Though the Ministry of External Affairs has promised to provide Bangladesh with details of the agreement on the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam in Manipur, the very signing of the deal has sparked a fresh controversy.
Following media reports and criticism, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Saturday, disclosing that India had promised to give details of the deal signed recently by National Hydro Power Company, Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd. and the Manipur government to build the 1,500-MW project.
“The Indian External Affairs Ministry has referred to the assurances given by India at the highest level in this regard,” the statement said. “We will also remain in close contact with them.”
Criticism of Hasina
Since the deal was signed without any knowledge of Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi experts, Opposition parties and the media have blamed the government for failing to take diplomatic steps to stop the dam construction, arguing that it is in breach of India's commitment and it will harm the country's interests.
They have also criticised the Sheikh Hasina government for its “imprudence” of relying on India's “non-binding assurances” on the dam. And environmentalists have expressed grave concerns at the ecological, economic and, above all, human consequences the dam would have for Bangladesh.
Abdul Matin, head of the water resource engineering department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, who visited the site as part of a team of experts, said: “The devastating effects … have long been discussed. Under the circumstances, this supposedly undisclosed agreement is a massive diplomatic failure.”
Experts' warning
Environmentalists and agriculture experts have warned that the twin dams, at Tipaimukh and Phulertal, across the cross-border Barak river would dry up rivers and waterbodies downstream, rendering vast farmland arid, hitting agriculture and threatening food security in the north-eastern districts of Bangladesh.
M. Inamul Haque, chairman of the Institute of Water and Environment, said: “The progress of the dam construction, despite [India's] repeated assurances to Bangladesh of not doing anything without taking its concerns into account, was revoked in the two joint declarations… [made] when the Bangladesh Prime Minister visited India in 2010 and the Indian Prime Minister visited Bangladesh in September.”
The agreement is also seen as “a violation of the framework agreement” signed between the two countries in Dhaka. “
The agreement for the construction of the Tipaimukh dam has made it clear that India is deviating from the formal and informal commitments it has made to Bangladesh,” said Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, executive director, Centre for Global Change.
A joint communiqué issued during Ms. Hasina's visit to New Delhi in January 2010 said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave the assurance that India would not take steps in respect of the Tipaimukh project that would adversely impact Bangladesh. He also reiterated the assurance in an identical statement during his return visit to Dhaka on September 6 this year.
After reading this, I could not help but comment. It seems that even after all this time, the whole South Asian regime continues to fall back as a result of in-bred hate and antagonism between the nation countries there. Add to that, the fact that India is becoming a global superpower very soon may also become a major colonial power, willing to put smaller nations at risk and harm for their own benefit and to become as wealthy a nation as possible at the expense of other sovereign nations.
As an Indian, I find this appalling, especially since the people of Bangladesh are-and should be-no less significant than the people of India. For that matter, no nation in South Asia should be less than India. And to think that we complain about the U.S. invading Iraq and Afghanistan! Its a shame to see that our actions may very soon become no different.
Any design that involves a neighboring country must be handled with extreme caution since it'd invariably create a precedence that may not always appear supportable. Can one afford such a precedence? And if so, at what costs? What if tomorrow China decides to build a massive dam on Brahmmaputra endangering the ecological balance of both India and Bangladesh? How would India craft a relevant protest to thwart such an event? There may be alternative sources of energy that could be harnessed at a minimum cost to both Bangladesh and India, is it not? When the future of glacier-fed water sources appears rather bleak does it make sense to lean on hydro-electric generators?
We don't know what is INDIA's PLAN about its neighbor countries.
such a country like BANGLADESH, India has many things to acknowledge.
We expect India always our big brother and friendly neighbor.
What will be the ultimate benefit from this DAM construction?
Only 1500 MW of Electricity which cost Millions of life???
Please STOP it!
We gave you transit!
What else do you want from us?
The river Barak is also the lifeline of more than 3 million people living in Barak valley. The southern part of Assam comprisig of Cachar, karimganj and Hailakandi is known after the name of the river. The proposed dams are going to devastate the ecology of the valley and livelihood of the people. The government of India as well as local politicians does not care for the people of this remote border area and did not bother to take them into confidence, let alone the people of Bangladesh. Now, it seems, people do not have any other options except launching an intense mass movement against these anti-people, anti environment and pro-corporate acts of the government. The move is also undemocratic as no prior, free and informed consent of the people sought.
Building more and more dams to meet the needs of modern civilisation has resulted in climate change effects exacerbating day by day. The surges of forces and bending stresses induced by the surges of water moments is making the earth react predictably with heating itself up enormously to melt the rocks underneath nuclear reactors, dams, buildings, causing fires, hotspots, cyclones, extreme rainfall, landslides, flash floods, cloudbursts, earthquakes, throwing designs of infrastructure incapable of withstanding beyond design basis forces. This is resulting in frequent man-made natural disasters kindling extinction level events. These were epitomized by Mahatma Gandhi in 1908 in his Hind Swaraj when he observed: Given enough time modern civilization will destroy itself! Now we are witnessing these cumulative effects of modern civilization destroying life itself. The future of modern civilization is paved with Fukushimas which are breeding Fukushimas by the day. Go normal now. Reforest!
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